The Tao of Dentistry

February 8, 2016

I don’t watch much TV these days, but last week I found myself watching two made-for-TV specials, one about Bernie Madoff and the other about O.J. Simpson.

Most would agree that these two were possibly the greatest monsters of our time. Most of us got to witness the behaviors of these two men. Madoff was particularly interesting to me because we came from the same town, and we went to the same high school.

My brother-in-law was in his graduating class. And Peter Madoff, Bernie’s brother was the president of my college fraternity.

Yes…they walked among us.

No real surprises there, but something struck me about the screenplay. Three times during the show Bernie Madoff repeated the line: “Trust is the basis for all long-term relationships.” Most of us who watched it heard the line because it was repeated again and again.

But most of us probably let it go by like a sudden chill in the room, or a fleeting pain.

Not me. This blog is about Trust, Appreciation and Ownership, and I have been writing about the importance of trust for dentists, in every human interaction…it is not only the basis of all long-term relationships, but the entire substructure of any well-functioning organization from a family to a country to a planet.

A few days later I got a phone call from a dentist who questioned what would happen if Bernie became a dentist, or a doctor rather than going to Wall Street. It could have happened considering his socioeconomic background.

Now, granted people like O.J. and Bernie are special cases…people who totally lack even a trace of empathy, and we all know that the opposite, people like like Mother Theresa, are just as rare.

So they don’t shock me.

What shocks me is the public’s reaction…to the SEC. The SEC is a government agency that is set in place to protect the public.

Who can we trust if we can’t trust those who are there to protect us? My friend, the dentist, was saying that we see this in our profession all the time…frtom every angle…the dentists, government, corporations, insurance companies and even the public itself.

In 1979, during the more idyllic days of dentistry, I traveled to Los Angeles to hear a presentation of alternative ways to deliver dental care. This one discussed the new retail dental office concept that was being set up in L.A. The first one was in a Sears store in El Monte California, a small industrial town just east of Los Angeles.

Two very polished salesmen spent two days trying to convince dentists that this was the future of dentistry. They were brothers, very well trained and very convincing. I left L.A. with a bad taste in my mouth…not because of the business model, but because of the way they objectified patients.

That was in 1979. I lost track of that concept, but not the language that I continued to hear over the last 35 years, from non-dentists and dentists alike who have objectified the patient experience and used trust as their method to persuade.

Very effective…and unethical. A paradox that would make anyone shiver.

Trust…the force that can be used for good or evil. We can choose to be Luke Skywalker or Darth Vader…yet mostly we sleepwalk through these choices.

I have witnessed dentists and doctors using the force for good and evil…it all comes down to —who are you?

For years, we in dentistry have seen outsiders take what used to be a “noble” ethical profession and turn it into business as usual. Who protected the profession?

Certainly not the dentists. Most went along with the status quo. I wonder why? Because we sure express our displeasure to each other.

Certainly not the insurance companies or corporations. They only talk about the human side of dentistry but continue to look at numbers and take away our autonomy- in one way or another.

And most important…not the patients. Many actually are crying out for more of the same.

At the end of the Madoff movie there was a voice-over as Bernie, thinking he was innocent, was blaming the system…the SEC, the public who he cheated because they wanted to make money because of their own greed.

He has a point…yes, my dental friends…we see this playing out everyday.

February 2, 2016

I haven’t blogged in a while. No, I am not getting lazy. I have been busy. I am writing a new book on leadership and communication for dentists.

I know…it’s a bland subject. I know…what can I tell dentists about leadership and communication that they haven’t heard before. I see their eyes light up when the speakers show them beautiful photographs of smiles.

I know where they spend their time and what they focus on.

But not me…for forty years I have focused on the human side of dentistry…the behavioral component.

And I have learned a lot, more everyday as strange as that seems. So I have decided to write a book about leadership and communication because those two terms seem to capture the entirety of the human side of dentistry is every way.

I truly believe what leadership expert John Maxwell says: “Everything rises and falls with leadership.”

If you want to be effective…study leadership.

If anyone has a better way to describe this highly complex subject, I am open to suggestions.

While doing my research, and trying to keep leadership and communication on the positive side of life because one of my core beliefs is that optimistic leaders are more effective and more successful; I found my self writing about actual problems in dentistry.

The individual, the organizational and the community problems…the darker side of dentistry.

Stress.

Now, I know that’s an old story. We have all heard the news that dentists commit suicide more than any other group. I never got into that conversation…but I do know some victims. I know a lot more sufferers of depression and burnout.

Whenever we hear about a professional suicide we march out that old cliche’ about suicides and dentist…then we go back to work – as a friend of mine once said, “we are either crying or lying.”

One thing we all know, workplace stress is real and professional burnout is very common.

But we’re doctors, we are expected to have everything under control, right? Maybe that is why professionals have swept this problem under the rug for so long.

For me, the giant basket of information for the cure for burnout was to learn how to connect with people better and learn how to become a better leader. It worked for me.

For others this has become a big issue. And it’s finally beginning to trend.

A friend tipped me off about a physician in Oregon, Pamela Wibles, who has become an evangelist for physician suicide and burnout. She has written a book, Physician Suicide Letters Answered. The book describes the problem in the medical community through her own personal story.

After publishing an article about herself, she received hundreds of letters from physicians who have shared similar feelings.

I contacted her and told her that we have similar issues in dentistry. Her website is www.idealmedicalcare.org/blog/. In her book and on her website she discusses some of the solution to this growing problem.

Of course this can be viewed as a blessing and a curse. Professional education is in dire need of reform…in every way. This problem has many causes….from professional school bullying and hazing to the extreme pressures young professionals go through in private practice.

The public needs to become more aware because of the implications of this problem. Mistakes in diagnosis and treatment will cost the public in the long run. Lawsuits will go up.

This is the tip of the iceberg. When this problem is more deeply explored we will find many more implications.

In the meantime if you have been effected by dental suicide, and burnout…leave some comments below.

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November 30, 2015

In 1973, while in dental school I read the influential bestselling book, Working⁠ by Studs Terkel, the late Pulitzer Prize winning author.

In that book Terkel reveals a well-founded conviction, that our universal search is the one for meaning, the subject of Viktor Frankl’s classic book Man’s Search for Meaning.

Terkel calls our jobs a search as well; “for daily meaning as well as for daily bread, for recognition as well as for cash, for astonishment rather than torpor; in short, for a sort of life rather than a Monday through Friday sort of dying.”The book is composed of interviews of people with many various jobs. The common attribute in all of the interviews is “meaning to their work well over and beyond the reward of a paycheck.”

I recently re-read parts of Working. I was particularly interested in the dentist, Dr. Stephen Bartlett who at that time had been practicing in a Detroit suburb for nineteen years.

The interview could have been done today. Bartlett’s complaints about dentistry: that it was physically demanding (he stood all day and refused to change to 4-handed sit-down dentistry), that most patients were under stress, that he had to deal with cancellations and mostly that only he knew when he did a good job.

He also spoke about what was appealing to him: that he could practice dentistry as he liked (autonomy), that he had the opportunity to play a role in the lives of his patients by changing their appearance (meaning), that he was his own boss and could make his own hours. I thought how similar the job is today…but like Viktor Frankl during his life—something happened…beyond his control…World War II.

In other words the landscape has changed. The human factors have remained the same. Our jobs provide us with a sense of meaning and purpose. No matter how much technology has made dentistry more pleasant…people still have fears and cancel.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Some might say, and I agree, that the sixties and seventies were the Golden Age of Dentistry. It was a time when a dental practice offered as much autonomy as a dentist wanted. It was the the ultimate in free enterprise.

We knew the score, graduate, specialize or open your own practice, hang up your shingle and go to work. Easy-peasy. If you were a people person, even better. If not, no problem, just work some nights and weekends.

There have been many changes since those years. The effect of insurance and third parties, as many dentists know, is not a simple equation. Insurance has had the effect of lowering the standards and quality of dentistry by discounting fees and creating their own networks—no matter what the insurance companies tell us.

Pay peanuts—get monkeys.

Advertising may be the holy grail of the free market economy, but under the guise of “educating the public,” it has been abused to the point of bringing out the worst in dentists…and once again creating conditions that force (too strong? I know) dentists to work for less.

Then there is the economy and the shrinking middle class…and the expense of opening a practice. Yes…there was a price to sitting down and doing 4 – handed dentistry, Dr. Bartlett.

Enough with the bad news.

There is good news—those things that appealed to Dr. Bartlett? They still exist. They’re timeless…and just like Frankl’s response in the death camps of WWII…it is up to us to respond to our present conditions.

It has become more difficult to practice with meaning and autonomy. We must make our own meaning. Leaders are meaning makers that is why I feel leadership needs to be emphasized in this profession.

November 3, 2015

Everyday, all over the world, there occurs an opportunity to raise dental intellect. In case you haven’t noticed there has been a shortage of dental intellect and that may be a big obstacle to achieving better dentistry.

I heard former Arkansas Governor and Republican Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee talk about curing the health crisis in this country by educating people about the chronic illnesses of diabetes, heart disease, cancer and Altzheimers. He contends that by educating the public we will save billions of dollars in healthcare costs. I agree…but it’s difficult when no one is listening.

Huckabee has an emotional stake in this cause. He’s a diabetic. His personal story about weight loss and diabetes is quite compelling.

I am a diabetic. I have personal stake in controlling my health, and I do. But not everybody takes their health that seriously. That is why it’s up to the health professionals to act as leaders and communicate the importance of all health, dental or otherwise.

So, let me get off of my soapbox and explain how many dentists ignore this, by not taking the opportunity to communicate, educate, motivate (choose any word you like), and lead people toward better health.

Patients show up to dental practices everyday with urgent problems. The emergency is generally pain, but it may include swelling, infection or cosmetic compromises.

In my practice I treat the emergency. Even if I have a twp hour hole in my schedule…I treat the emergency.

After years of doing it this way, I am convinced it is the right thing to do. I never do definitive emergency treatment.

In my youth I did. I did emergency crowns, veneers, root canals, and even once I did a complete maxillary restoration. Most of the time, all I did was create a short term relationship that never changed anyone’s long term heath, or attitude toward health.

Leaders understand the value of providing long-term value. They have a different set of drivers.

This causes me to think about what is driving dentistry these days? Who is driving dentistry these days?

I think that is a problem that effects the whole dental community, from patients to doctors and staff. Short term thinking has long term effects (Strawberry shortcake anyone?)

Dentistry has changed over the last 50 years. I wonder if this short term thinking had anything to do with it.

I used to call this single tooth dentistry, or body part dentistry…but it goes much deeper. It’s a way of living. A philosophy of practice and of life.

My solution? When a patient comes in with an urgent problem…they are at their highest emotional level. They listen because they truly have skin in the game.

What an opportunity!

Step back. Take care of their felt need (not yours).

Use the opportunity to explain (this is a skill in itself) why dentistry is important. They are all ears at this point. You may not succeed with every new patient, but at least if enough dentists began to do a complete examination geared toward long term health—well that might just make a dent in the universe.

That is why I promote the complete examination for every new patient. Sure it takes time…but time well spent for all concerned. Help make the complete exam a standard operating procedure. So many mistakes can be traced back to ignoring this one thing.

I think that is what Mike Huckabee means when he says chronic disease is our biggest problem. We need leaders at every level…especially at the level of the health care professional.

October 27, 2015

I am a sucker for self-help books. I am not into the Kardashians, Dancing With the Stars or Entertainment Tonight, but put a self-help book in front of me and I’ll devour it in a day or two. I have read them all – under the hope of becoming a better person, improving my business or my favorite…setting and achieving goals.

I am not alone. Self-help books moved from a niche position to being a cultural phenomenon in the late twentieth century. It is estimated to be an $8 billion a year industry in the US alone.

A self-help book is one that is written with the intention to instruct its readers on solving personal problems. The books take their name from Self Help an 1859 best-seller by Samuel Smiles.

Some respected psychologists like Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi have argued that self-help books will clearly not help people to become thin, rich and well-adjusted; indeed they will probably have no effect whatsoever.

Worse, some have claimed self-help books are actually bad for us by promoting ‘false hope syndrome’.

And that is what brings me to America’s first self-help movie, The Martian, Matt Damon’s new blockbuster that is drawing massive attention and attendance.

For many it’s a thrilling story, but for me, the sucker for self-help, it was another guide to goal setting.

I mean if his goal was to get back to earth from Mars (that’s 50 million miles), then what the hell, my production goals are a joke. Take a look at that photo of him—all smiles and thumbs up. Talk about having a good attitude.

Without giving away the plot (duh), I will attempt to point out some of the many self-help principles Damon used to get back to earth…principles that have actually guided me through my own personal journey.

Be a life-long learner. Commit to knowing your work as they taught me at the Pankey Institute many years ago. Damon’s character was a botanist. Think how handy that knowledge could be when you are stranded on a planet without water.

Be a goal setter and monitor your progress. These two go together because just setting a goal without understanding your deadlines and progress is just a dream. Our film’s astronaut knew exactly how many days he had to get back to earth and how much rations he needed to get there. The story really takes off when they have to figure out every component of his rescue was necessary. As an author I can tell you that writing a book is nothing compared to getting home from Mars – so reaching your monthly production goals—piece of cake.

Fail Forward. Look, no one bats .1000. Murphy’s Law is always in play, besides, what kind of movie would this be if nothing ever went wrong. The key is to pick yourself up and use the failure as a learning experience. It’s a good thing Matt was familiar with Thomas Edison’s lessons learned from inventing the lightbulb. After failing 10,000 times he told a reporter he learned 9,999 ways it didn’t work.

Be Persistent. Overcome Resistance and Do the Work. Those three points may look like three separate lessons but they are all related. Everyday we face resistance. Our tendency is to put things off. Damon could not…he was in survival mode. He had to act with a sense of urgency everyday. To me this is life’s greatest lesson. The clock is always ticking. Our job is to continue to move the ball down the field. Most of us (and I mean our patients as well) don’ understand that without forward continual motion we get stuck. Sure there is resistance—our job is to overcome it. Calvin Coolidge said it best:

“Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ‘Press On’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”

5. Have Fun. Once again, as you can tell by the picture above, Damon continued to maintain a positive attitude throughout his mission. Tough to do? Sure, but attitude means everything.

6. Leave Your Legacy. Once again, I won’t ruin the movie for you but understand that Damon had people on Earth that needed him back. He becomes a mentor—a teacher—because in the end we are all here to pass the baton.

Enjoy the movie. Hollywood has an agenda. How else can we learn life lessons these days? The Kardashians?

October 19, 2015

As a practicing dentist for over forty years, if there is something I do regularly it’s deliver bad news. As the GEICO ad tells us…“if you’re a doctor you deliver bad news…it’s what you do.”

Not a day goes by when I don’t have to tell someone that they have a cavity, periodontal disease or worse yet, how much it will cost them. And it’s not just the dentistry: how about when a case comes back from the lab and the shade is off or worse, we need to take another impression. In a dental practice the situations are endless.

It’s a rare moment when we get to say “Mrs. Jones…it’s a boy.”

This is not the fun part of a dentist’s job…and many dentists paradoxically try to avoid it.

Think about that for a second.

A longtime patient comes in for a routine cleaning and you discover early decay under a old long-span bridge. It’s a bridge you made for her fifteen years ago. She comes in regularly and she has not needed work in years. You know she’s under the impression that as long as she flosses daily and comes in on a regular basis that she is immune to major problems. Worse yet, she is recently divorced and approaching retirement.

Tense times…for everyone, unless of course you lack empathy. That’s another problem, but if you truly want to master the art of delivering bad news better – then this may interest you.

Leadership and communication lie at the center of your success in dentistry. Present your case in a positive manner and you will get more acceptance, less complaints and most importantly better health for everyone. In the past I have written blog posts about the charismatic dentist and empathy…delivering bad news better can go a long way to improving your charisma scores.

In a new book, Broadcasting Happiness,The Science of Igniting and Sustaining Positive Change, author Michelle Gielan offers her Four Cs on how to deliver bad news.

If you practice the Four Cs I am sure your dental practice will become more positive in every way and you will never complain about “people” again.

Let’s take a look at the Four Cs in dental practice:

Create Social Capital. A buzzword being used these days in business and sports, is culture. But what exactly does that mean? Dental practices need to build cultures of trust. Covey, years ago referred to an emotional bank account. Social capital refers to the resources that we have available to us based on trust and the willingness of practice to support our actions. For patients of record this trust is built up over the years. For new patients it is built through the examination process, and how the practice welcomes patients in. Other resources include our ability to communicate, educate and motivate through listening and clear expression of thoughts and ideas.

Give Context. How you frame your conversation means everything. If we frame our treatment in negativity…pain, cost and inconvenience, our acceptance will go down. Just this morning I entered my hygiene room and my patient sensed my presence and said, “Uh Oh!” She was joking, but let’s be honest most patients frame their dental visits negatively. One way to provide context is to use what I call a “reason why philosophy.” It takes a bit longer but I usually give a thorough explanation about why I need to do dentistry. Not only what needs to be done but why it needs to be done. This takes a bit of skill. but it can be learned. Many dental practices use what author Gielan calls a Band-Aid mentality in delivering bad news- they just rip it off fast so it won’t hurt as much. I hate when that happens to me…the reason why philosophy builds trust. This comes up more often than we might think. Even in the case of a patient who repeatedly refuses x-rays…just saying “because I said so,” doesn’t inspire trust. Taking the time to give a well thought explanation goes a long way.

Express Compassion. One of the strangest things for me to understand is noticing how so many of my dentist friends feel when they are on the receiving side of bad news. And I mean any bad news. They especially love to complain about the cost of things these days, yet they have no problem dispensing the bad news. It’s human nature to not take bad news well. Just knowing that means we have to step back and show empathy…it’s appreciated. Dentistry is expensive these days. If you’re reading this and getting angry because your fees are justified, I get it. You know who doesn’t get it? Most patients, so show compassion. Talk about it. And it gets worse when it’s your work that fails. According to Michelle Gielan, compassion not only makes moral sense, it makes business sense.

Stay Committed. Earlier I said that delivering bad news was an aspect of leadership and communication. The leader’s commitment is to the patient and their well being. Leaders deliver long term value and in order to do that we must remain committed. In the end delivering bad news starts with being human. If we remind our patients of what John Lennon once said, “Everything will be okay in the end. If it’s not okay, it’s not the end.”

So take heart, if delivering bad news gets you down, use these 4 Cs to change the way you look at things—because “if you change the way you look at things the things you look at change.”

September 30, 2015

It has been two weeks since the second Republican debate was televised to the American public. I found it ironic that the debate was held at The Ronald Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California. The backdrop for the event was Reagan’s presidential plane, acting as a constant reminder of the deceased ex-president.

America learned many things from the debate…but this blog is about dentistry and life, so I will leave that discussion to those who choose to argue about the political issues. I want to go beyond the issues to the candidates and how they choose (or don’t choose) to get their message across…because we all have a message to get across, and our success depends on how we do it.

The setting was ironic because Ronald Reagan was a master of leadership and communication. He was the Great Communicator.

The irony reared its ugly head throughout the evening as many of the candidates acknowledged Reagan’s ability and ranted how our country lacked leadership…and then proceeded to insult each other and carry on as if it were a street fight.

I recalled something someone once told me, “Never argue with a moron, because from a distance, you can’t tell who is the moron.”

The irony was that the issues got lost in their expression. That is still holding true two weeks later.

How we say something is more important than what we say.

Maybe that is the lesson from the grave. Communication is the gateway to better leadership.

During the debate I tried to see through the issues and concentrate on how each candidate chose to get their message across. Who could deny the haughtiness of Trump, the contentiousness of Fiorna, the humility of Carson or the storytelling ability of Rubio?

My own affinities toward or against these styles was irrelevant especially during the debate while my emotions interfered with what was really going on.

All the while Reagan’s image watched over…The Great Communicator.

It has been two weeks since the debate and I find it interesting how the polls have moved. Trump is trending downward while Carson and Rubio upward.

And Ronald Reagan is smiling from the grave. Communication will out the real leader…it always does.

Even Jack Kennedy had a communication problem until Bobby, his campaign manager convinced him to school himself on how to relate to the public…how to become “everyman.”

But I digress…this is a dental blog.

Everyday we have our platform. We have opportunities to impress our public everyday. Our new patient examination is our platform. We cannot abuse the platform.

We have abused the platform—some of us are Trump, some Carson, some Fiorina. Watch these candidates, learn what creates followers and what doesn’t.

Mostly, understand that your message and how you express it will determine your success, and never, never, never abuse your platform.

What a joke! The fraud inspector said it all. Probably like the waitress in the film clip, there was such a lack of trust that it is hard to do a good job. That’s where we have come over the last forty five years.

No one likes to be surveiled. No one wants someone looking over their shoulder.We want the freedom to do our jobs to the best our our abilities…that’s how we build our self-worth. Through our work.

And I am not just writing about doctors and dentists. We need to trust our employees enough to do the right thing.

Take a look at Jack’s reaction. How often do we feel like that when speaking with an uncooperative service provider? How does it feel?

What’s worse though is the stifling effect it has on the provider. It can destroy trust in the entire system. Whether it’s getting something as simple as two pieces of toast or getting your cable turned on in time for this week’s football game—we need people to have the freedom to use their judgement and behave with a sense of autonomy.

Dentists, as well as doctors are feeling this more and more. The ideology of insurance companies and now corporate dentistry, is putting constraints on health professionals in order to become more efficient and more profitable…at the cost of losing autonomy.

When autonomy is gone…so is passion. It’s just a job..and that’s not why we went to school.

August 10, 2015

I practice hot yoga three days per week. I have reaped the rewards. The word “yoga” means “to join” or “to yoke.” What gets joined is the body, mind and the spirit. First comes the body, then the mind, and then the spirit.

Physical, mental and emotional benefits. Harmony! Balance!

When the owner of my hot yoga studio, a yogini, came to see me, she was in acute pain.

She had been reluctant to see a dentist for years because she found it difficult to keep her mouth open for cleanings or x-rays.

But pain is the greatest motivator, and she could no longer avoid the inevitable. She was skeptical, but when I explained that the jaw followed the same principles of muscle physiology that governs the body, she agreed to having an occlusal splint made.

The occlusal splint, as most dentists know, quiets the major muscles of the face – like a perfectly executed Yoga posture.

Jess wore the splint.

When I showed up for my next Yoga class, she greeted me at the entrance with a huge smile on her face. She demonstrated that she was able to freely move her jaw painlessly, in all directions.

I pride myself in reading people’s emotions. That’s a skill dentists get good at over time.

I can read pain, I can read fear and I can read frustration. That is how Jess presented that first day.

On this day, I was reading pure joy...as if she were being let out of prison. As a matter of fact during our class she admitted to always feeling reluctant about going to the dentist because of the jaw pain.

I told her many people suffer from facial pain and headaches due to TMJ dysfunction – and even those who don’t have the acute symptoms, get relief of subclinical symptoms they never knew they had.

Just like Yoga.

Mild constant chronic pain can effect us mentally and emotionally. We tend to adapt to not feeling well. Since I began doing Yoga I have become pain free, I have more energy, and yes I am happier—the union of the body, mind and spirit.

People walk around with subclinical pain. They accept it as being normal and make life choices based on not feeling well. It’s amazing how pain relief can affect the mind.

So many people walk around with chronic pain, and accept it as part of their life.

Taking care of the body goes way beyond the cosmetic…it’s life changing in many ways.

With all of the emphasis these days on cosmetic dentistry…I still feel better about getting a yogini back to the mats than doing a big cosmetic case.

August 3, 2015

Well, I’ve just about had my fill of Cecil the lion stories, but I still feel obligated to write about my take on this tale. Like most stories these days, this one too will soon be forgotten because, as someone once said about Americans,…we have short memories.

So, in the spirit of Jimmy Breslin, who once won a Pulitzer for journalism by walking away from JFK’s funeral to interview the man who was digging Kennedy’s grave…I will attempt to give you my spin on Cecil and the “American Dentist.”

First, I want to say that I think what the “American Dentist” did was despicable. I have been breeding dogs for twenty years. I have been involved with boxer rescue and placed numerous homeless dogs. I never forgave Michael Vick…and never will. Killing or hurting defenseless animals is wrong…aggression is wrong. I don’t even like aggressive drivers.

So what bothers me about the Cecil story?

In 2005 our “American Dentist” lost a sexual harassment case for $127,500 that also carried a penalty of him having to undergo ethics training. It seems that his ex-employee Tammy Brevik, 43, accused the married clinician of subjecting her to unwanted ‘verbal comments and physical conduct’ involving her ‘breasts, buttocks, and genitalia’ in the 2005 complaint.

But crowds didn’t gather around his office back then…trying to put him out of business. No! His patients allowed him to go back to work, I guess, because everyone deserves a second chance…just like after Vick spent time in jail we watched him play football, for which he was handsomely paid. We forgive and forget.

Yes…as unbelievable as it sounds we will forget about Tom Brady and the deflated balls…and Ray Rice…and Donald Trump’s aggression toward John McCain. Tune in Thursday for the Republican debates if you want to see aggressive behavior.

Maybe it will take Cecil—the so-called domesticated lion to teach America a lesson...but I don’t think so.

I mean placing Cecil’s image on the Empire State Building —stop it!

The human brain is driven by testosterone. We depend on our executive brain to control our behavior…and sorry to say, for most people it just doesn’t work. Aggressive behavior is a double-edged sword. We are taught in business to create BHAGs…Big Hairy Audacious Goals. Our “American Dentist” did just that. Big game hunting has been around for thousands of years…at one time it was a matter of survival—and that made it okay.

People say the same thing about Wall Street, Politics and the NFL.

And boy, do the crowds love a hanging. Is testosterone at work when the crowds come out to the gallows to see justice? Is it okay to put our “American Dentist” out of business?

Is that justice? And why did the public give him a pass on the sexual harassment? If he were a pedodontist that wouldn’t have happened…I would hope.

But things will be okay now…because we have Cecil.

I am sure that Disney, the people who brought us the sweet little mouse with the squeaky voice, will adopt Cecil as the symbol of compassion and empathy.

The problem my friends is aggression and human nature…my advice…the same as the Dalai Lamas’s: Practice compassion at every level and the world will be a better place.